DdC

Anti-drug forces are warning that summer time is marijuana time for teenagers. Reminds me of the time I first saw the old Hollywood movie, "Reefer Madness," produced in the depression days of the '30s.

Viewed in today's culture, the movie is a comedy with its exaggerated portrayals of the drug's evil effects on human behavior. But it wasn't funny to the school kids in my day.

The popular "hemp plant," smoked by untold millions in America, is known by 400 or so slang equivalents such as "weed," "pot," "tea," "gage," "grass," "hash" or "joint," and many other names.

Long before today's generation of "Mary Jane" smokers, the euphoria-producing marijuana cigarette was called a "reefer," and I grew up scared screwy about it. We kids were told that marijuana was "the devil's hell," and we wanted nothing to do with it. I don't recall ever seeing one.

"It'll make you kill someone you love," I was told. "Even your mother!"

We were warned that the "reefer" was worse than bath tub gin, and we knew that was bad because poisoned bootleg liquor was always killing some of the grownups.

"Prohibition" opened up an incredible criminal underworld opportunity in the "roaring '20s." Some say we have the same thing going today with drugs. Police tell me that $500 worth of cocaine can bring $100,000 on the streets. A police chief, once asked why the drug peddlers were so prevalent, replied:

"It's the money, stupid!"

Drugs not only make the underworld dealers rich, but confiscated cash and contraband -- including vehicles -- fatten the coffers of local government. The forfeited police seizures from drug busts are "the best things about the war on drugs," a sheriff's deputy recently remarked.

Our prisons are filled with drug addicts who rob and steal to finance a habit that has become the state's burden. Half of the million prisoners in American jails are there for drug-related offenses -- mostly involving young people with marijuana -- at a cost of $20 billion a year. Countless kids are put in prison for possessing "pot." The cost in law enforcement and judiciary trial time is mind-boggling.

Many authorities believe the drug war is a failure, that more effective weapons -- with education, rehabilitation and prevention programs -- are needed. A growing number believes in taxing and regulating some drugs -- marijuana in particular -- like the regulatory laws on alcohol and tobacco which take far greater tolls than narcotics. About 400,000 cigarette smokers in America die each year from use of tobacco, the most addicting of all drugs. You never hear of anyone ever dying from smoking marijuana, but its mind-altering manner is known to cause casualties in other ways.

Anyway, we're told it's that time of year -- the summer time -- when the smell of pot might be more noticeable at teenage gatherings.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that "new users" of marijuana are increasing. For example, the number of eighth graders using marijuana doubled in the decade between 1991-2001. Since the smokers don't file statistical reports with the government, or otherwise make known their pot-smoking preferences, accurate estimates are hard to come by. However, estimates for Americans range from a minimum of 5 million on up. It's probably four or five times that.

Some 2 million first time users come on the scene each year, and that was "volunteer" date from national household surveys as reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

On the other side of those favoring regulation and taxation, with emphasis on education, treatment and prevention, are those calling for more law enforcement activity and stiffer prison penalties. Crop destruction of hemp and poppy plants in South America, Mexico and Afghanistan is a favorite program of the U.S.A. war on drugs that costs taxpayers $75 billion per year.

These are somewhat extremist positions between the staunch "prohibitionists " and those who would liberalize drug laws, eliminate the profits of dope-dealing, and even "decriminalize" marijuana.

Recent published polls show that a majority of Americans -- 54 percent -- favor decriminalization of marijuana. Certainly that wouldn't reflect Corsicana people, where voters have consistently kept the town "dry" by outlawing beer and liquor. But laws have been passed in some areas -- California for example -- to make marijuana available for medical use.

I have my own theory: Fertilize the poppy plants and marijuana fields! Spray them with plant food instead of eradicating them with herbicides. The resulting bumper crops would deflate prices, send the drug dealers into bankruptcy, clean up widespread corruption and bribery among public officials, including some police, and destroy much of the criminal drug underworld -- like we did Al Capone with repeal of prohibition in 1933.

We've made some progress since the days of "Reefer Madness," but it wouldn't hurt to mobilize some fresh thought on the costly drug problem.

Clyde Johnson is a Daily Sun columnist. His column appears Sundays.

Complete Title: Reefer Madness ... Marijuana Controversy Remains a Burning Topic 70 Years Later

<a href="http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread16728.shtml" target="_blank">Reef er Madness ... Marijuana Controversy Remains</a>
Source: Corsicana Daily Sun (TX)
Author: Clyde Johnson, Daily Sun Columnist
Published: June 29, 2003
Contact: dailysun@airmail.net
Website: <a href="http://www.corsicanadailysu n.com" target="_blank">http ://www.corsicanadailysu n.com</A>

<a href="http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml" target="_blank">Cann abisNews -- Cannabis Archives</a>



<a href="http://www.pdxnorml.org/Nation_Hoffman_11218 7.html" target="_blank">The Nation, November 21, 1987 Reefer Madness By Abbie Hoffman</a>

"All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those towards whom it is directed will understand it. Therefore, the intellectual level of the propaganda must be lower the larger the number of people who are to be influenced by it."
Just Say No!

<a href="http://marijuana-uses.com/examples/ginsberg_mhoax.htm" target="_blank">The Great Marijuana Hoax By Allen Ginsberg</a>

"How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries and deeds of maniacal insanity it causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured...No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a joyous reveller in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer..."
HARRY J ANSLINGER Commissioner of the US Bureau of Narcotics 1930 -1962

<a href="http://www.dopefiends.com/gallery.html" target="_blank">Cann abis Culture Reefer Madness Gallery</a>

"Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise."
From Benito Mussolini contributing to the "London Sunday Express," December 8, 1935

<a href="http://www.marijuananews.co m/news.php3?sid=698" target="_blank">Dick Cowan: Marijuana Use Doesn’t Hurt “Thinking Skills” But Prohibition Does.</a>

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others."
Harry Anslinger, U.S. Commissioner of Narcotics, testifying to Congress on why marijuana should be made illegal, 1937. (Marijuana Tax Act, signed Aug. 2, 1937; effective Oct. 1, 1937.)

<a href="http://users.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Ludlow/madness.html" target="_blank">Lyca eum Reefer Madness links</a>

"Another weapon I discovered early was the power of the printed word to sway souls to me. The newspaper was soon my gun, my flag - a thing with a soul that could mirror my own."
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini together in the heyday of 1930s fascism.

<a href="http://www.reefermadness.or g/propaganda/essay.html" target="_blank">Reef er Madness Essay by Deirdre Murphy</a>

"We're going to bring back God and the Bible and drive the gods of secular humanism right out of the public schools of America." --Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan addressing the anti-gay rally in Des Moines, 2-11-96

<a href="http://www.pdxnorml.org/reefer.html" target="_blank">Reef er Madness: Portland Wages a New War on Pot</a>
Willamette Week, March 29, 1995, pp. 20 ff.

"They say you can't legislate morality. Well, you certainly can."
John Ashcroft Chicago Tribune May 25, 1998

<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97apr/reef.htm" target="_blank">Atla ntic Online 4/97 More Reefer Madness</a>

"There is a point at which the law becomes immoral and unethical. That point is reached when it becomes a cloak for the cowardice that dares not stand up against blatant violations of justice. A state that supresses all freedom of speech, and which by imposing the most terrible punishments, treats each and every attempt at criticism, however morally justified, and every suggestion for improvement as plotting to high treason, is a state that breaks an unwritten law."
- Kurt Huber [The head of White Rose], killed by the Nazis in 1943.

<a href="http://lists.village.virgin ia.edu/lists_archive/sixties-l.old/0086.html" target="_blank">Coca ine Fiends & Reefer Madness</a>



<a href="http://lists.village.virgin ia.edu/lists_archive/sixties-l.old/0120.html" target="_blank">Spea king of Reefer Madness</a>

President Ronald Reagan, at the urging of then Vice President George Bush, appointed Carlton Turner as the White House Drug (czar) Advisor in 1981. Soon after Turner left office, Nancy Reagan recommended that no corporation be permitted to do business with the Federal government without having a urine purity policy in place to show their loyalty. Carlton Turner became a rich man in what has now become a huge growth industry: urine-testing.

<a href="http://www.marijuana-hemp.com/cin/facts/iom2.shtml" target="_blank">IOM Strikes a Blow at 'Reefer Madness</a> '

"Marihuana Makes Fiends of Boys in 30 Days; Hasheesh Goads Users to Blood-Lust" create terror of the "killer weed from Mexico." Through his relentless disinformation campaign, Hearst is credited with bringing the word "marijuana" into the English language. In addition to fueling racist attitudes toward Hispanics, Hearst papers run articles about "marijuana-crazed negroes" raping white women and playing "voodoo-satanic" jazz music. Driven insane by marijuana, these blacks -- according to accounts in Hearst-owned newspapers -- dared to step on white men's shadows, look white people directly in the eye for more than three seconds, and even laugh out loud at white people.

<a href="http://www.indiesent.com/ganjab/reeferma/rmtitle.html" target="_blank">THE LINDESMITH CENTER: REEFER MADNESS</a>

I wish I could show you what a small marihuana cigaret can do to one of our degenerate Spanish-speaking residents. That's why our problem is so great; the greatest percentage of our population is composed of Spanish-speaking persons, most of who are low mentally, because of social and racial conditions.

<a href="http://www.crrh.org/hemptv/miscqt_reefer.html" target="_blank">CRRH Reefer Madness</a>



"If the hideous monster Frankenstein came face to face with the monster marihuana he would drop dead of fright."
This is not an overstatement.
Users of the marihuana weed are committing a large percentage of the atrocious crimes blotting the daily picture of American life.
It is reducing thousands of boys to CRIMINAL INSANITY.
And ONLY TWO STATES have effective laws to protect their people against it.
The marihuana weed, according to Mr. Anslinger, is grown, sold and USED in every State in the Union. He charges, and rightly, that this is not a responsibility of one State, but OF ALL — and of the Federal Government. American women, aroused to this DANGER, will GET ACTION.

<a href="http://www.electricemperor. com/eecdrom/HTML/EMP/04/ECH04_17.HTM#headlin es" target="_blank">A Roundup of Hearst's Hysterical Headlines</a>

"You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob?
<a href="http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread12302.shtml" target="_blank">Rich ard Nixon missing tapes</a>

<a href="http://www.pdxnorml.org/Atlantic_Monthly_Ree fer_Madness.html" target="_blank">Pdx NORML Reefer Madness</a>

"You're enough of a pro," Nixon tells Shafer, "to know that for you to come out with something that would run counter to what the Congress feels and what the country feels, and what we're planning to do, would make your commission just look bad as hell."

The Shafer Commission of 1970
Marijuana does not lead to physical dependency, although some evidence indicates that the heavy, long-term users may develop a psychological dependence on the drug"

<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/crime/reefm.htm" target="_blank">Reef er Madness by Eric Schlosser</a>
The Atlantic Monthly, August 1994, Vol. 274, No. 2

<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97apr/reef.htm" target="_blank">More Reefer Madness - 97.04</a>

<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/crime/marjuan.htm" target="_blank">Mari juana and the Law</a>

1936: DuPont obtains a patent license to manufacture synthetic "plastic fibers" from German industrial giant I.G. Farben Corporation. The patent license is obtained as part Germany's reparation payments to the United States after World War I. A few years later, I.G. Farben manufactures deadly Zyklon-B gas, used in Nazi death camps to murder millions of Jews (along with many homosexuals and drug users). DuPont owned and financed approximately 30% of Hitler's I.G. Corps, the military-industrial backbone of the fascist Third Reich.
<a href="http://www.jackherer.com" target="_blank">http ://www.jackherer.com</A>

<a href="http://www.pdxnorml.org/Atlantic_Reefer_Madn ess.html" target="_blank">(If the Atlantic Monthly server is down, read Portland NORML's version.)</a>



<a href="http://www.sumeria.net/politics/shadv3.html" target="_blank">Invi sible Prohibition</a>

<a href="http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~verdant/Marijuana_FAQ/X0006_1c_Where_did_t he_wor.html" target="_blank">Wher e did the word `marijuana' come from?</a>

<a href="http://www.thirdworldtravel er.com/Parenti/BlackshirtsReds_Pare nti.html" target="_blank">From Whom Did the Fascists Get Support?</a>
Italian fascism and German Nazism had their admirers within the U.S. business community and the corporate owned press. Bankers, publishers, and industrialists, including the likes of Henry Ford, traveled to Rome and Berlin to pay homage, receive medals, and strike profitable deals. Many did their utmost to advance the Nazi war effort, sharing military industrial secrets and
engaging in secret transactions with the Nazi government, even after the United States entered the war. During the 1920s and early 1930s, major publications like Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, Saturday Evening Post, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Christian Science Monitor hailed Mussolini as the man who rescued Italy from anarchy and radicalism.

<a href="http://www.legendsmagazine. net/59/reefer.htm" target="_blank">Reef er Madness by Dune Hartsell</a>

"...somebody has to take governments' place, and business seems to me to be a
logical entity to do it."
- David Rockefeller - Newsweek International, Feb 1 1999.

<a href="http://www.new-universe.com/archive0/messages_1197/reefer_madness.htm" target="_blank">More Reefer Madness</a>

"Arbitrary and capricious" is legal language that was used by DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis Young in 1988 to conclude that DEA was obligated under the Controlled Substances Act to reschedule marijuana as a prescription medicine. DEA Chief Administrator Robert Bonner proceeded to arbitrarily and capriciously disregard.
Judge Young's well researched and reasoned decision, which the Act allowed him to do.)

<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2000/10/12/drugs/index.html" target="_blank">Salo n.Com Reefer Madness By Gary Kamiya Oct. 12, 2000</a>

"The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of the nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell a big one."
From Benito Mussolini contributing to the "London Sunday Express," December 8, 1935

<a href="http://www.wired.com/news/print_version/politics/story/21152.html?wnpg=all" target="_blank">Reef er Madness Hits Congress by Debbi Gardiner and Declan McCullagh</a>

"The mission of the Christian Coalition is simple," says Pat Robertson. It is "to mobilize Christians -- one precinct at a time, one community at a time -- until once again we are the head and not the tail, and at the top rather than the bottom of our political system." Robertson predicts that "the Christian Coalition will be the most powerful political force in America by the end of this decade." And, "We have enough votes to run this country...and when the people say, 'We've had enough,' we're going to take over!" --Pat Robertson

<a href="http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/19125.html" target="_blank">Reef er Madness in Illinois by Craig Bicknell</a>

U.S. law enforcement spends $7.5 to $10 billion annually enforcing marijuana laws. According to the FBI, 720,000 Americans were arrested on marijuana charges in 2001.
Keith Stroup, <a href="http://www.norml.org" target="_blank">(NOR ML)</a>

<a href="http://www.drugwarfacts.org " target="_blank">Drug War Facts</a>
In 2000, there were 1,579,566 drug arrests in the US. Of those, 46.5 percent --
734,497 arrests -- were for marijuana.
There were 646,042 arrests for simple possession of marijuana in 2000.

D.E.A.th Deceptions
<a href="http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/DEAth.html" target="_blank">http ://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/DEAth.html</A>

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